Government Shutdown Averted

From Roll Call

An extension of temporary appropriations for nine Cabinet departments and dozens of smaller agencies through Dec. 21 is on its way to the president’s desk after the House and Senate passed the measure Thursday.

The legislation would extend current funding levels for two weeks and buy time to reach final agreement on outstanding spending issues, including President Donald Trump’s $5 billion southern border wall funding request. It also extends a number of expiring authorizations including Violence Against Women Act programs, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the National Flood Insurance Program for the duration of the stopgap measure.

After the House passed the measure by unanimous consent on Thursday, the Senate quickly took it up and passed it on a voice vote. That gives Trump more than 24 hours to sign the legislation before the current stopgap providing funding for those sections of government expires on Friday at midnight. Without the new stopgap in place, a partial shutdown of operations at those agencies would begin at 12:01 a.m.

Negotiations over the seven remaining fiscal 2019 spending bills — Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Interior-Environment, State-Foreign Operations and Transportation-HUD — were mostly on hold this week as lawmakers mourned the death of former President George H.W. Bush.

Read the full article from Roll Call.